- trampling + smoothing of pavement at honeypots

Future Changes:

- continuation of present processes

- possible changes, in climate + rainfall, level of grazing, 

- public access etc

The outward journey from Wakefield to Ilkley, and on past Addingham towards Skipton crosses a variety of rock types that are mostly sandstone with some shales.

(a) Ilkley to Addingham (travelling) GR: 101479 to GR: 064497

A distinctive landscape

All rocks influence the nature of the landscape developed on them, but none forms such distinctive scenery as limestone. This rock is the only common one which is physically strong and yet will also dissolve in rainwater. The result is a most exciting and unusual landscape – waterless except for stream sinks and springs, and characterised by rugged crags, cave systems, dry valleys and gorges. Such a landscape formed by solution of the limestone is known as "karst" (named after a region in Yugoslavia), and Britain’s finest karst is in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Crags and scars of bare white rock dominate the southern dales, from Wharfedale to Kingsdale, via Malham and Ingleborough. They are all exposures of the Great Scar Limestone, a 200 metres thick slab of rock laid down over 300 million years ago, in the shallow, tropical seas of the Carboniferous period. Vast numbers of calcite shells accumulated as sediment on the floors of these seas. Millions of years later, this sediment was compressed, recrystallised into strong limestone, then gently deformed and fractured, and finally uplifted. Now it stands proud in the Dales landscape, having been scoured by ice and fretted by water.

Overall, the Great Scar Limestone dips gently northwards, and limestones in the northern dales (Wensleydale and Swaledale) belong mainly to a younger, overlying series of rocks. They are in fact members of a repeating sequence of limestones, sandstones and shales, known as the Yoredale series. Individual beds of limestone are rarely more than 30 metres thick, so whilst karst features are present in the northern dales, they are not as important as those in the Malham and Grassington area which are developed on the Great Scar Limestone.

Limestone pavements are areas of limestone which have been scoured clean by glacier ice. Their crevassed and grooved appearance is the subsequent result of slightly acidic rainwater dissolving the limestone. Solutionally widened vertical cracks, or joints, are known as grykes, while the intervening limestone blocks are known as clints. Pavements are extremely important because their damp, shady grykes provide a protected habitat for a large range of relatively rare plants, many being more typical of a woodland floor.

A Changing Landscape

The landscape of Malham and Malham Tarn is very special. Few other places in Britain possess rock formations on such a grand scale, in combination with a diversity of wildlife habitats and a wealth of historic man-made features.

Rocks over 300 million years old lie at the heart of the landscape. They were mostly laid down in warm, shallow Carboniferous seas, then wrenched and faulted by earth movements and pushed up from the sea bed as land. Light grey limestone dominates the area, although there are outcrops of older Silurian slates and in the surrounding fells Carboniferous shales and sandstones overlie the limestone.

These rocks were buried beneath younger ones, but in the immensity of geological time, any overlying strata have been removed. Once exposed to the atmosphere, weathering and erosion slowly shaped the Silurian and Carboniferous rocks into the present broad pattern of valleys and hills. At least three times in the last million years, the landscape was locked under ice sheets. Powerful ice flows and meltwater rivers scored the rocks and created many of the fantastic formations which now characterise the landscape.

The last retreat of the ice 12,000 years ago left a harsh, barren waste, but as the climate improved and soils formed again, plants and animals soon recolonised the landscape. When man returned, he entered a world of rich natural habitats, with streams, lakes and wetlands all enveloped in an endless forest.

The first groups of hunting men made little impact on the landscape, but in the last 5,000 years, as farming became the main source of food, the forest was steadily cleared. It was replaced by a patchwork of fields, as each generation added new boundaries and buildings.

(d) Monks Road Scar GR: 9200712

Glaciation lowered the main valley (Skirfiredale), but not this tributary valley. Meltwater at the end of the last ice age, and since then this tributary (Cowside Beck) has rapidly cut down through the limestone (vertical erosion) to create this narrow steep-sided valley. Now this tributary is starting to erode laterally and widen the valley floor.

Draw an annotated sketch of the view (directly or obliquely) across the valley to the scars. Remember – start sketch with main features – skyline – edge of main slopes – then add detail – individual scars – then fine details – variation in scar height, variation in scree size – vegetation etc. A list of terms to use in your annotation includes:-

(Scar / scree / rapid vertical erosion by river / freeze thaw / mass movement / lack of surface water / slow weathering rates / vertical / steep / harsh landscape ..... etc

(e) Malham Tarn (viewed from the Field Centre)

This attractive lake lies on a bedrock of slates in a depression scoured out by glacier ice in the Ice Age. The occurrence of Silurian slate, surrounded on all sides by younger Carboniferous Limestone, is the result of earth movements and erosion in the geological past. The Tarn is scientifically important because springs, rising from the surrounding hills, bring in dissolved limestone, making it the highest lime-rich lake in the country. The unusual habitat of the Tarn, is, therefore, a home for a unique collection of plants and animals.

Look at cross-section above. Because of the North Craven Fault, the stream flowing from Malham Tarn now flows back onto limestone rock.

(g) Dry Valley GR: 893654 Draw simple sketch cross-section of this shallow dry valley. Annotate to identify main features / characteristics / and to explain its formation.

(h) Dry Gorge GR: 892650

This section of the dry valley is more like a gorge. Vertical erosion must have been very rapid. Produce an annotated sketch view OR annotated sketch cross-section. Include reference to:- horizontal beds / bedding planes / joints / cracks / scree covering lower slope / different thicknesses of layers / gorge-like cross-section / approximate dimensions. (Draw on reverse if you need more space.)

What is glaciokarst? The unusual landforms of the Malham area are largely the products of the alternating warm and cold climates of the last million years – the Ice Ages and the inter-glacial periods. In the cold periods glacier ice eroded the landscape exposing the now bare areas of limestone. This would also happen on other rock types. Since the Ice Age – other rocks have weathered, decayed and disintegrated to form the soil that now covers those rock surfaces. As limestone dissolves rather than disintegrates, soil has not formed, leaving the rock still exposed. The limited vegetation cover seen at Dewbottom Scar cannot establish itself here because of the grazing sheep. In the current warm period, the exposed limestone bedrock has been dissolved away by slightly acidic rainwater. Landscapes developed by solution of limestone are known as karst landscapes (after a region in Yugoslavia), and when combined with the effects of glaciation are known as glaciokarst. The National Park has some of the finest glaciokarst in the world.

Dry Valley Watlowes Valley is believed to have been eroded by a meltwater river flowing over frozen ground (possibly beneath an ice sheet) towards the end of the last ice age. It is dry today because surface water is able to sink underground.

Annotate your sketch of this view to identify the main landscape features and to explain their formation (pavement / scar / scree / dry valley). You should also highlight the asymmetrical cross-section of the dry valley – and explain why this is so.

Limestone pavements Pavements are areas of limestone which have been scoured clean by glacier ice. Their crevassed and grooved appearance is the subsequent result of slightly acidic rainwater dissolving the limestone. Solutionally widened vertical cracks, or joints, are known as grykes, while the intervening limestone blocks are known as clints. Pavements are extremely important because their damp, shady grykes provide a protected habitat for a large range of relatively rare plants, many being more typical of a woodland floor.

(k) Cove Top Pavement GR: 897642

Malham Cove This great limestone amphitheatre was formed when a spectacular waterfall eroded the hillside back from the line of the Mid-Craven Fault. Abundant meltwater flowing down the Watlowes Valley towards the end of the Ice Age tumbled 70 metres into the ice-filled cove. Obviously, with no surface flow across the limestone plateau today, the Cove remains dry, except in times of severe flooding (such as in 1969). The Cove face is one of the few natural nest sites for house-martins and is a refuge for rare plants like the Pennine Whitebeam. The stream that emerges at the resurgence at the base of Malham Cove is not the stream we followed from the Tarn (that reappears near Goredale Scar – 2km east). This first stream disappeared at sink holes at GR 882659.

Annotate the photocopy to describe the feature and explain its formation. (Earth movements / fault line / lip of waterfall / overhang / massive beds / resurgency / scree etc.)

QUESTION ONE

Marks

Use your notes and sketches from the fieldwork to help you answer the following:

Yorkshire Dales. 6

QUESTION TWO

With the aid of suitable diagrams to illustrate your answer:

have influenced the formation of features characteristic of limestone areas. 6

QUESTION THREE

Remember our walk from Malham Tarn to the top of Malham Cove.

Dry valleys are a major landscape feature often found in limestone landscapes. They

must have been formed when conditions were very different from those occurring today.

valley. 6

QUESTION FOUR

Marks

The river that flows south from Malham Tarn usually disappears down sink holes at

GR 894657. However, there are occasions when this river flows further along its

channel to GR 894655 before all the water has disappeared.

a) Explain why and how this river is able to disappear from the surface.

disappear in the way it does and where does the water go?

channel disappears, varies at different times of the year.

In order words, why does the river flow further some days than others.

centuries. 6

QUESTION FIVE

Global warming is a very topical issue. Man, through his various polluting activities,

is said to be responsible for changes in climate which are currently thought to be taking

place. As well as increased temperature, some scientists predict that rainfall will

increase in areas like the Pennines.

(at GR 894646?) 6

QUESTION SIX

Marks

Use the base sheet provided for this cross-section exercise.

limestone pavement, a scar, a dry valley and a gorge. 6

QUESTION SEVEN

Think about Dewbottom Scar pavement in the natural woodland north of Grassington.

Think about Ings Scar pavement (overlooking Watlowes) in the pastoral farming

landscape typical of much of the Yorkshire Dales. Think about the pavement along the

top of Malham Cove, much affected by tourists walking across it.

changes might occur in the future? 6

QUESTION EIGHT

The limestone landscape found in the Malham area is often described as a unique

landscape, in comparison to the landscapes that form as a result of the slope and

valley processes in other areas.

in the Yorkshire Dales) unique. 6

types. You need to identify the processes that are unique to limestone landscapes, as

well as the features that are unique to limestone landscapes.

Get a folder from the department to keep your fieldwork and coursework in.

This hand-out contains the questions you have to answer, some background information that introduces each question, and hints on how to answer the questions.

Read the information sheet about what your examiner is looking for (page 2).

Read the Notice to Candidates (page 3).

Questions 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 should take about half-an-hour to complete, whilst questions 2, 4 and 8 should each take about an hour to complete.

You should use the information collected on the fieldtrip, as well as your exercise and textbooks as a source of information to answer these questions.

If you need any help or guidance then do ask a member of staff.

Do try to keep up-to-date with the work as we progress through the unit. It is important that you do not fall behind with your work. Too many candidates have lost easy marks because the final questions had to be rushed after they failed to keep up to schedule with work during the first week of the unit.

In order to gain high marks it is not how much you write or how many neatly coloured-in maps you produce, but the quality of your commentary.

Neatness is important and it is essential that you show a good understanding of geographical techniques. However, only draw a graph, map or diagram if it improves your written commentary. There are no marks for decoration!

a clear sense of where the study area is and what makes the landscape distinctive

an understanding of some of the processes that have (in the past), or are (now) affecting the landscape, and that these processes may be complicated and interrelated

you can use information, not just refer to it to make a point

you can link ideas together; ideas from fieldwork, perhaps your own observations; class work; or from your own knowledge of places

you can record information in appropriate ways

information is sorted, analysed, processed to make clear the patterns that exist, rather than individual pieces of information

awareness of the limitations of the information, the techniques or any other points – don’t try to hide them but try to explain them

draw conclusions showing that you appreciate the whole topic, drawing on information gained through the study of processes affecting these and other landscapes

individual changes in processes do not just give simple changes to landscape – consider different possible outcomes from a change in process, and from a   combination of changes

description, beautifully drawn maps and pictures show low-level skills and even if done perfectly are only worth a small proportion of the marks and won’t gain a high grade

a good commentary explaining what you have found and one which uses information is worthy of a high grade

 

A. REGULATIONS

1. The work which you submit for assessment must be your own.

However, you may:

(a) quote from books or any other sources: if you do, you must state which ones you have used;

b) receive guidance from someone other than your teacher: if so, you must tell your teacher, who will record the nature of the assistance given to you.

2. If you copy from someone else or allow another candidate to copy from you, or if you cheat in any other way, you may be disqualified from at least the subject concerned.

3. When you hand in your coursework for assessment, you may be required to sign that you have understood and followed the coursework requirements for the subject.

 

B. ADVICE

1. Keep to the deadlines your teachers set.

2. Take care of your coursework and keep it safe.

3. Ask your teacher if you need any guidance.

4. If you have been away and have any problems with completing your coursework, talk to your teacher.

 

ALWAYS REMEMBER – YOUR COURSEWORK MUST BE YOUR OWN